Then all the Ink-Bottle Babies set up a shout, “You have been asleep! You fell asleep playing in the snow!”
Molly and Polly could not believe they had been dreaming. They said, “We went riding in a sleigh!”
Then the Ink-Bottle Mamma put dry clothes on them and said, “Sit and toast yourselves by the fire, while I get you some gingersnaps!”
When Molly and Polly were warm again, they told their wonderful dream.
When they had finished talking the Ink-Bottle Mamma said, “Can’t you really tell the time, my dears?”
“It is nine o’clock”
The Ink-Bottle Babies all shook their heads. Then the Ink-Bottle Mamma gave them twenty-five little circles of pasteboard, and she gave them some little pieces for hands of each clock.
They fastened the hands on the clocks with twenty-five little pins.
Now she said, “We will make numbers on the clockface.”